1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to refrigerators, and, more particularly, to a refrigerator that is provided in an upper portion thereof with a cooling room and a machine room.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a refrigerator is an apparatus that maintains the freshness of various foods for a lengthy period of time by feeding cold air generated in an evaporator to a storage chamber. Recently, as users who are fond of a large-sized storage chamber increase, there is a trend toward large-sized refrigerators. These refrigerators may be exemplified by side-by-side refrigerators in which a storage chamber is divided by a partition wall into a freezer compartment and a refrigerator compartment on the right and left sides of the refrigerator.
A side-by-side refrigerator has a storage chamber that is divided into a freezer compartment and a refrigerator compartment. A freezer compartment door and a refrigerator compartment door are attached to front sides of the freezer compartment and the refrigerator compartment to selectively open and close them, respectively. A plurality of shelves and containers are provided in the freezer compartment, the refrigerator compartment, and the doors. An evaporator and a cold air circulating fan, that generate and supply cold air, and a cold air duct, that forms a cold air passage, are positioned in a rear portion of each of the freezer and refrigerator compartments. A plurality of cold air outlets and air inlets are formed in a front side of the cold air duct. Further, a machine room partitioned from the freezer and refrigerator compartments is formed in a rear lower portion of a refrigerator body to accommodate a condenser, a compressor, a cooling fan, etc.
However, in the conventional side-by-side refrigerator, the evaporator that generates cold air, and the air circulating fan that circulates the cold air, are not only disposed in a rear portion of each of the freezer and refrigerator compartments, but the machine room that contains the compressor and the condenser is also positioned in a rear lower portion of the body, so available inner spaces of the freezer and refrigerator compartments are reduced.
In particular, large sized refrigerators, such as the conventional side-by-side refrigerator, have a relatively great height, so a small user easily uses a lower space of the storage chamber, compared with an upper space of the storage chamber. Meanwhile, in the conventional side-by-side refrigerator, the machine room is arranged in a rear lower portion of the body, and occupies a lower space of the storage chamber, so the lower space of the storage chamber that is conveniently used is reduced.
Further, in the conventional refrigerator, mounting structures through which the evaporator, the cold air circulating fan, and passage parts are disposed in a rear portion of each of the freezer and refrigerator compartments are complicated, so the mounting efficiency of these parts is low, thus deteriorating the manufacturing efficiency of the refrigerator.